Silverbird, others film Yoruba movies with 70% English at cinemas, actor claims

Nollywood actor, Eniola Ajao, has accused most cinemas houses in the south western Nigeria of favouritism.

In an interview with The Nation, the actor claimed that the reason Nigerian English movies enjoy more acceptance than the Yoruba themed movies was mainly because the cinema owners prefer the former to the latter.

She added that the only condition a Yoruba movie would be shown at the cinemas is when it’s 70% in English language and just 30% in Yoruba.

In response to why Yoruba movies are rarely shown at the cinemas, she said, “There are Yoruba movies in cinema. Yes. Some Southwest cinemas take it from us but if it’s not like 70% English and 30% Yoruba, some cinemas like Silverbird will not accept it from you.”

She lamented that Yoruba movies are often perceived as local while English as ‘posh’.

“It is because they shoot their own films in English. There’s nothing spectacular about them and they can see us as razz people. Most of their productions are low budget productions. All those ones they did in Onitsha. They don’t have storylines. We do. Yorubas believe in helping one another. Feature in mine and I will feature in yours which doesn’t happen in English Nollywood movies.

“They (English Nollywood) are not doing anything spectacular. We have a better story line. But we need to invest. They are investing their money in it. That is all they are doing. Absolutely, nothing else. So we need to cut our low budget productions. If you want to produce like five films in a year, reduce it to two or one, put your money together and produce that just one film and make it a standard one,” the thespian said.

The beautiful Nollywood actor, who has been rumoured to be having an affair with Odunlade Adekola, also gave insight into what is the bane of the Yoruba Nollywood.

“Yoruba movie industry is always based on relationships which is killing the business aspect of the industry. It’s one of the things I’m not happy about. You call me for a role and you want to pay me 200k (Two hundred thousand naira) for a role I should collect like 1million (One million naira) for. It’s not nice. And if I agree to do it for 200k that means I will call you to do mine for me for that amount,” she said.

The Nollywood actress, who jettisoned her qualification as an accountant to pursue her dream in the movie industry, promised to tie the knot soon.